Hank Fincken as Thomas Edison
For over 20 years, Hank Fincken has toured the US performing his six original one-man plays in schools, parks, libraries, festivals, and universities. Ten years ago, he modified some of his presentations to work in summer Chautauquas. His characters include Johnny Appleseed, Christopher Columbus, Henry Ford, an 1849 Argonaut named J.P. Bruff, and of course, Thomas Edison.
This is Fincken's second Chautauqua in Missouri, and he is excited about coming back to the state. Fincken finished college and began a life of adventure, first serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru and Costa Rica and then doing his original research in Europe, the Dominican Republic, and Peru. His most recent trip was to Quito, Ecuador, where he worked as a translator in rural clinics with a team of American doctors and wrote an original play for the professional theatre group, Quito Eterno. Fincken has published some twenty plays and stories, a dozen essays and one book: Three Midwest History Plays And Then Some.